Sick Skye
by Agents Are Us
Summary: Skye gets the flu on an undercover mission and it's up to May to take care of her. One-Shot. Set in S1 before the HYDRA/Ward mess.
**This is my first attempt at actually publishing something I've written. If you catch any mistakes, tell me so I can fix them please!**

 **Constructive criticism is always appreciated!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not even my computer. It's kind of sad, really.**

* * *

Taking Skye on an undercover mission was a bad idea. May knew that, but Coulson thought she was ready and Coulson thought he was the one in charge. Granted, May had thought she would blow their cover or ruin the deal. What she did do was actually much worse, in her opinion anyway.

Leave it to the rookie to go and get herself the flu. May could not even be angry with her, as Skye was currently a shivering mess with a fever of a hundred and two.

And, more importantly, she was left to take care of the girl.

* * *

"I talked to Simmons. She said you needed these." May holds out a handful of pills. There are five types, all different shapes and colors. On the bedside table is an untouched glass of water. Skye was not keeping hydrated, apparently.

May realizes the girl is practically comatose and shakes her semi-violently. Her eyes open slowly. "Take these. Now," May orders. Skye nods and lifts her head a fraction of an inch, wincing in pain. She swallows the pills and washes them down with half the glass of water before letting her head fall back on the pillow. Everything hurts less when her head is down.

May washes her hands (she is sure as hell not letting herself get sick) and calls Simmons again. "What do I do now?"

"Just give the meds some time to work. Skye's fever should go down and she should start to feel better soon. Just keep on giving her liquids and the medication. She should be better within the next five days."

'Five days!' May wants to shout. It had only been six hours and she was already ready to shoot the kid. "Thank you, Simmons," she says instead.

* * *

Skye's temperature spikes at around midnight. The fever meds are not working. May tries to call Simmons again, but the biochemist does not answer. Skye is shivering under four blankets, muttering in her sleep. The hacker's usually perfect hair is plastered to her forehead and her breath is ragged. She's not doing well.

May finally runs a lukewarm bath and helps the half-delirious girl stumble into it fully-clothed. After about ten minutes, May checks Skye's temperature again. It's down half a degree, which does not seem like a lot to her, but is a world of difference to the hacker.

It takes an hour to get Skye's temperature down to a hundred and one. Actually, it takes forty-five minutes, but May is putting off helping the girl out of the water. She tries to tell herself it is not a big deal- she has seen Skye in her underwear before. Of course, May was pissed at her when it happened, so she was not really bothered.

May tries not to think about it as she lifts Skye's shirt over the girl's head. She gets that far when the meds start to really kick in and Skye pushes her out the room. May thanks whatever being gave her that blessing and leaves to heat up some soup.

* * *

Skye's temperature stabilizes at one hundred and two and stays there. She feels horrible, but she is not dying. May is force-feeding her meds in between episodes of Arrow on Netflix. Luckily, SHIELD pays her for some reason, so Skye has been able to keep her account paid for.

"Turn that off!" May says suddenly. As an afterthought, she adds "Please."

Skye obliges, if only because the Cavalry is near to yelling. Apparently, May does not like coffee or TV. Which makes her all the more interesting to Skye.

May just continues her Tai Chi silently.

* * *

Skye's fever goes up again that night. The hacker is so gone she is hallucinating. May calls Simmons again, who picks up the line just as Skye starts to shake violently. May describes what's happening in far too much detail in far too little time to be understood. She takes a deep breath and explains it slowly.

"It sounds like she's having a febrile seizure," Simmons informs May through the phone. "You have to turn Skye on her side and let her ride it out."

The next two minutes seem like the longest in May's life, but Skye eventually stills and her fever even goes down two degrees when May puts a washcloth on her forehead.

"Thanks, Simmons. I think the worst of it is over." Even so, May stays awake with the girl as she sleeps through the night, changing out the cloth at regular intervals. "I knew you were going to be more trouble than you were worth," she mutters, yawning.

* * *

When Skye wakes up in the morning everything hurts a little more than it did before. "What happened?" she asks groggily, sitting up slowly.

"Your temperature spiked again and you had a seizure."

"I had a seizure?"

May sighs. "Yes, you had a seizure. There won't be any lasting effects."

"Good. Imagine if I was, like, paralyzed for something. I'd never be able to hack into anything ever again. Where would I get a job?"

Agent May decides to entertain her. "I don't know. Didn't you drop out of high school?"

"Yes. Learning Shakespeare isn't high on the Rising Tide's list of priorities."

May nods mutely and Skye does not elaborate further.

They let the time pass in silence. When enough time has gone by that she feels like it is not going to give her a migraine, May lets Skye put the TV on again and they listen to that for a while.

Mostly, though, they just think.

Skye thinks about her childhood in foster care. She thinks about the nuns and their stupid rules and the boy who she would eventually run to the Rising Tide with. She thinks about the things that happened that led her to where she was now.

May thinks about Bahrain. Mostly, what happened after. It's where her mind goes at every rare free moment, to the girl she could not save. Somehow, that evolves to Skye, and her life. There are a plethora of unanswered questions about her past.

And Skye just plain is not ready to answer them yet.

* * *

Two days later, Skye is well enough to be bored and embarrassed but still weak and exhausted. Their mission is deemed a failure and her and May go back to the BUS, both silently promising to never talk about their field mission again.


End file.
